Call It Destiny

Heather. Even if I have to get it the hard way. And I don’t take failure easily.“
    She wasn’t certain how to take that declaration. It was hardly a ringing vow of love. But, then, she wasn’t interested in a marriage of fluff and fantasy. She wanted a working partner and Jake sounded as if he was willing to work, both for the Hacienda Strand and for the marriage.
    „Well,“ she quipped, seeking a way to lighten the heavy direction of the conversation, „at least this time if we wind up married and broke we’ll know we can do as Julian suggested and get jobs cooking hamburgers. We won’t go hungry.“
    To her surprise he took the joking remarks seriously. „If that’s what it takes, that’s what we’ll do.“
    Heather turned away with a small frown. Drive and determination were normally qualities she admired in others and had an abundance of herself. But in Jake Cavender those two attributes were overlaid with an intensity that occasionally sent uneasy chills down her spine.

3

    One week before the wedding Jake stood beside Paul Strand on the Strands’ private garden terrace and watched Heather circulate through the crowd of beautifully dressed people her mother had invited. The party was in honor of the engaged couple but somehow it seemed to have turned into Heather’s party.
    Colorful Japanese lanterns cast an appealing glow over the gathering. The afternoon thunderstorms had come and gone, removing temporarily at least, some of the typical August mugginess. Glasses and ice clinked as the guests cheerfully downed Paul Strand’s expensive liquor along with Julian Richards’s beautiful canapés.
    Jake sipped meditatively at his Scotch and reminded himself for what must surely have been the hundredth time that evening, that in another week he would be married to the vivid creature across the room.
    Dressed in a deceptively simple jewel-toned silk gown that plunged rather daringly in back and was demurely high in front, her hair polished and sleek, Heather had taken over the party from the moment it had begun. Jake caught glimpses of her smiling animated features as she charmed her way through the evening, and something fierce tugged at his insides.
    He wanted her. He’d been wanting her for three weeks. It seemed like forever.
    For a moment he entertained a brief satisfying fantasy of cornering her at the party, throwing her over his shoulder and carrying her off into the night. Three weeks of restraint shouldn’t have been affecting him so much, he told himself wryly. He was a man, not a boy. He took another swallow of the Scotch and gazed broodingly at his future bride. Heather was busy coaxing the normally shy Cecil Winthrop into lively conversation.
    „Never saw Cecil loosen up so much at a party before,“ Paul Strand observed humorously. He slicked back the fawn-colored cuff of his well-tailored sport coat and glanced at his watch. „Normally he claims he has to be in bed by ten and here it is going on eleven.“
    „He’s captivated by Heather. Just like everyone else here tonight.“
    „I told you she would make the perfect hostess for the Hacienda, didn’t I?“ Paul grinned complacently as he glanced at the younger man. „With your brains and her natural ability to handle people, the two of you are going to make this hotel the finest in Arizona.“
    „How did you know she was going to be so good with people, Paul? You and Ruth have told me for two years that she nearly drove you crazy before she left home.“
    „Ah, but even when she was driving us crazy she could twist anyone on the staff around her little finger. I’d yell at her for going swimming in front of the guests in a bikini that was two sizes too small, and the next thing I knew she was being cosseted in the kitchens, stuffing herself with cookies and soda pop while the waiters and the cooks commiserated with her. I always knew she had the brains and the willpower to make something of herself, and it used to drive me to distraction to see her rely on easy charm to get what she-wanted.“
    „She seems to have developed both brains and willpower during the last few years,“ Jake observed. „She’d made quite a name for herself in hotel management circles before she told you she was coming home. You don’t get her kind of reputation on charm alone.“
    Paul chuckled. „I know. Actually, she’s a great deal more lethal now than she was when she was a kid.“
    „Charm and intelligence can be a dangerous